How to build a Gingerbread House

During the first weekend after Thanksgiving my family gathers around the table to make our annual Gingerbread House. Since this is a family event, ALL have special jobs they are required to do each year. This goes right along with The Clean Heart study I am doing. Doing a project together as a family helps make your house a home.

Here are the step by step instructions on how to make a wonderful gingerbread house.

Step one: Buy a pre-made kit. Since we do not eat our gingerbread house, there is no reason to spend the extra money and time on making it from scratch. I bought ours at Michael’s for less than $7.00.

Step two: Find a large heavy board, drill a 1″ hole in the center and cover with foil. Why the hole? You’ll have to wait and find out on January 1st.

Step three: This is where the husband has his expertise. The sides must be squared and the roof perfectly angled, or it will not stand correctly or be able to withstand the pressure it receives on January 1st. You may use any tool from the garage to help straigten the sides. My husband has used his electric saw and a hand grader.

See the perfect angle of the roof? Perfect like my husband. Don’t tell anyone, but the roof of that gingerbread house almost matches the top of my husband’s head. 😀

Step four: Now comes the fun part for my husband. Putting the sides together. You will need very special icing for this job. William is using MAX 1000 Silconized Acrylic Caulk. Nothing but the best for our gingerbread house. You can buy this special icing at any gingerbread home repair shop.

Step five: Now the children and I have our jobs to do. First the children must fight over the amount of candy each of them get. The young man decides he will divide the candy up eveningly. This enables him to get the correct amount of blue candies he needs for the roof. The two younger girls will decorate two sides, Susanna decorates the other two sides and Matthew decorates the both sides of the roof. Joanna and Rebekah are too young to understand that this is really not fair. I suspect next year there will be a problem with this area. I do all the icing. The children tell me where to put the (real) icing and then they stick the candies on.

Step six: After a while the children will become hungry. As a good mom you should always be prepared to feed them. This way they can continue their hard work.

Once it is all finished, it is time to step back and admire your creation. If you are talented, as my children are, your house will look like this.

Step Nine. To be announced the first week of January 2007. 🙂